Travis d’Arnaud making case to receive bulk of playing time for Mets with another strong game

SARASOTA —Travis d'Arnaud is not taking a back seat anytime soon. The Mets catcher has been challenged by backup Kevin Plawecki's stellar play this spring, but he has responded with both his bat and his defense. Sunday, d'Arnaud went 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBI in the Mets' 5-4 victory over the Orioles at Ed Smith Stadium.

He also threw out a runner and made a nifty play on Manny Machado's bunt up the third- base line in the first inning. D'Arnaud rushed the ball, spun and fired a strike to first base to get the Orioles' All-Star shortstop. "The spin move, that was sexy," Noah Syndergaard said.

D'Arnaud is hitting .323 with five extra- base hits and six RBI this spring. Plawecki is hitting .333 with three extra-base hits and seven RBI. "He's been tremendous," Mets manager Mickey Callaway said of d'Arnaud. "He and Plawecki, what great camps they are having. He's been working really hard on his throwing, it paid off today. I thought he would have thrown out two. The first one the ball cut …. I saw it from here, cut five feet. The second one was right on the money. They were both in the 1.9 area, that's a really good pop time for anybody."

The Mets came into the spring planning to platoon Plawecki and d'Arnaud. Earlier this spring, Callaway indicated that Plawecki could be getting more of the playing time, based on his ability to hit righthanders. He walked that back a bit Sunday.

"I am not sure yet, I think there are going to be a lot of factors — who were are playing, who's pitching — things like that we will take into account," Callaway said. "The good thing is we can put either one of them back there and feel totally comfortable."

WHAT A RELIEF

Despite the injury to Jason Vargas, Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman are still being told to prepare as relievers. Sunday both pitched on one day's rest. Lugo gave up three runs on three hits, including a home run. Gsellman had runners on the corners in the ninth, but was able to protect the one-run lead.

"Lugo gave up some runs, but probably threw a ball over the plate to Valencia that he would never throw in a game ever, because he just is an ambusher, first pitch, middle away guy. He probably would have run something in on his hands or thrown his breaking ball," Callaway said. "He looked good, both of them did. I was kind of glad that Gsellman had to come in to a one-run game pitching the ninth, something on the line. Then he got a man on third, he upped it even more. He was walking off the field and said I love that. That got me going, so that was pretty good time."

CONFORTO COMING ALONG

Michael Conforto played the field for the first time Sunday. (Howard Simmons/New York Daily News)

Michael Conforto hit in a minor league game for the third straight day and for the first time played in the field. Conforto went 0-4 with a walk and played three innings in center field. Rehabbing from surgery to repair the anterior capsule in his left shoulder, Conforto had not played in the field in a game since last August.

Also in that minor league game, Todd Frazier was 1-7 with a walk, triple and sac fly.